FIFTY-SEVEN TRAVELING

Finding the car of her dreams turns into a nightmare for an antique-auto aficionado and her doting spouse.

When Jack and Kitty Bloodworth (Fifty-Seven Heaven, 2007) drive Sadie, their ’57 Chevy, to the Pigeon Forge car show, it crosses their minds that the sleepy Tennessee town might be just the place to find the vintage Chrysler Kitty has longed for. But it seems like incredible luck that Mose and Medina Beadle, playing fiddle outside the restaurant where Jack and Kitty dine their first night in town, just happen to have a ’37 Chrysler on blocks back at their farm. The price their son Charlie demands makes Jack’s hair curl, but in the end, he gives in to buy Kitty her heart’s desire. The ink on his check is barely dry when someone vandalizes the hilltop cabin the Bloodworths share with their friends Leo and Deb Evans. And no sooner are they relocated to less-viewy but equally quaint digs than Charlie Beadle’s body turns up in a ditch on Highway 321. Police Chief Wilburn hauls Jack to the station for questioning; Kitty’s digital camera goes missing; and it looks as if they’re never going to get their purchase back to Metropolis. But the earnest pleas of Sassy Bentley, Charlie’s grandma, that they attend the funeral convince Kitty that all is not as it seems on the Beadle farm.

Cruse’s middle-aged sleuths will strike a chord with lovers of cozies and car buffs.